was. And no way to make her believe that kiss had been different from any other in his life, that he flat out hadn’t been able to resist her. Worse, they’d both be in big trouble if anyone found out what had happened tonight.
Moving much more slowly, Ethan made his way back inside. He’d have to go back to the kitchen, joke about the cat, pretend he was carefree and heedless and hadn’t a thought of Lucy Bowman in his head. It was going to be damned hard. But he’d do it. He’d do just about anything to protect Lucy, he realized.
***
Alec’s anticipation of the second interval was dashed from the beginning when Edward Danforth stepped through the curtains at the back of their box. “Mama sent me over with salutations,” he said with a graceful bow. “She’s holding court, of course.” He indicated a box to the left, where Alec discovered his Aunt Bella entertaining several older gentlemen. She must have been fashionably late. He hadn’t seen her come in. Politeness required that Alec bow. She gave him a little wave that seemed to epitomize everything he disliked about this branch of his family—their unshakable air of superiority, their careless amusement at those who could not match their social ease, their taste for malicious gossip. But most of all it was his aunt’s impervious self-regard; her baseless lawsuit had outraged the whole family. Yet she sat there as if she’d done nothing wrong; indeed, he knew she maintained she was in the right, despite the unequivocal verdict of the law courts.
Edward leaned over the back of Charlotte’s chair. “Are you enjoying the play? Ravished by Kean’s genius?” Alec wanted to dismiss his cousin as a posturing coxcomb. Only, he wasn’t. Three years older, he had always outstripped Alec in the social graces.
“We are finding him a little… excessive,” Charlotte replied, smiling up at Edward. Alec became conscious of a desire to toss his cousin over the rail into the pit.
“Do not let anyone hear you say so!” Edward pretended shock. “He is all the rage, ma’am, I assure you.” They exchanged a twinkling look. What did he mean by calling her “ma’am”? It was ridiculous, though Charlotte appeared to be enjoying it.
“Hamlet is becoming rather annoying,” offered Lizzy.
Edward gave her a lazy smile, but otherwise ignored her. “Kean’s death scene is much admired,” he told Charlotte. “Perhaps that will sway you.”
“Does he die?” said Lizzy. “I shouldn’t be glad, I suppose…”
“You’re looking very pretty, cousin,” Edward said to Anne. “Next year, you’ll have a broad acquaintance and more interesting supplicants in your box than a mere relation.”
Anne flushed and returned a shy smile.
“Don’t let us keep you from your friends, cousin,” Alec couldn’t help saying. “I know you find family gatherings tedious.”
“Less so every day,” Edward responded, sharing out a smile between Anne and Charlotte. “Indeed, I think I must pay far more attention to my family… obligations.”
He said the last word as if it meant something quite different. Yet there was nothing one could object to in the sentiment. He’d been a slippery creature since he was eight years old, Alec recollected. “The play is about to start up again,” he said. He didn’t care whether it was true. He just wanted Edward gone.
The latter met his eyes, laughing at him. “A few more minutes, cuz. Pray don’t turn me out.”
There was no answer to that, and he knew it. Alec was forced to watch him flirt expertly with Charlotte and Anne for ten long minutes before the interval finally ended. And by then even Lizzy looked charmed. It was Edward’s gift—without a doubt—easy charm. Alec had never envied it quite so much as tonight, and he refused to ask himself why this should be so.
The play wound up to its gory conclusion. Alec held cloaks and recovered gloves as his charges chattered about the cascade of deaths and, in Lizzy’s case, how Hamlet might have avoided his serial mistakes. As they waited in the press of patrons searching for their carriages, he noticed that Frances looked tired. “Let us walk a little,” he suggested. “I told Thomas to wait down this way.”
Thus, they found the carriage much sooner than otherwise, though no one seemed to notice his forethought. Lizzy had turned the conversation to Edward Danforth. “It will be a great help to you next year, Anne,” she said. “He can present you to all his fashionable gentleman friends.”